August 15, 2012The Very Best of the Edwin Hawkins SingersEdwin Hawkins Singers1999

One of the most acclaimed gospel recording groups of all time, four-time Grammy-winners, the Edwin Hawkins Singers will always be best remembered for their ecstatic 1969 version of the standard “Oh, Happy Day,” which became the single biggest Gospel hit in history, and crossed over the R&B charts where it felt equally at home. The magic is in the smooth, laid-back delivery of Hawkins’ vocals, answered by the jubilant blast of his female choir near full-voice. It’s not the only song you’ll find on this album with that special magic of an inspired arrangement and it’s certainly not the only one with crossover appeal. In fact many of its best tracks are the ones that Edwin Hawkins takes from another genre and brings into his joyful church.

One of the most fun of these is “His Way (My Way)”, a brilliantly playful subversion of the ballad made popular by Frank Sinatra. Playing soulful piano to a rock steady beat with the help of a high hat, Hawkins spurns crooning for his own gentle cooing vocal style, completely shedding the brash machismo of the Rat Pack to sing about following his faith and his spirit.

In covering Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind,” Hawkins is more reverent to the original, which undoubtedly came into the world with gospel roots. He underscores the anthem’s feeling of fierce, beleaguered hope by ratcheting up the tempo and giving the majority of the words the full throats of his vocalists. In “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” (from the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar), the Singers take a contemporary song that was nodding both to gospel and pop and blow it out with the full, testifying, gospel treatment, while on “Jubilation,” they use a rollicking piano line, a funky organ riff and driving pace to rock their message home. Whatever style they bring their soulful musical message through, it will move you—you can’t receive this message sitting still.